New Moon in Aries | April 15, 20176:57pm PST | 26 degrees

Sunday’s New Moon in Aries ushers in the fires of vitality, producing the ash necessary for innovative fertility. This is the zodiacal New Year: the Sun and Moon will courageously renew one another, conjunct electrical Uranus, striking up a radiant fire of purification to push us into our upcoming journeys. Our work is to walk through this fire to find the alchemical formula for transmuting our personal shadows as we ascend into ever-greater awareness of the unified field of consciousness.

Uranus emphasizes the communal sweep of transformation that takes place on the atomized level. This is the synchronized transformation of individuals. While we are are collectively channeling a distinctly new energy, the way we will experience this transformation is more vertical than horizontal. The time now is to open upward and channel downward in a process of transformation that is experienced very personally.

Part of the opening-upward process will require education about the world around yourself. Growing awareness is critical, both internally and externally. Now is an important time to ask what actions open the heart and all vessels in the body for greater flow, and to what broader social context you can contribute this flow. If you don’t know the answers to those questions, try new things.

Mercury will station direct in the wee hours of the morning before the New Moon, which makes this lunation an incredibly potent time to seed alchemical transformation of the spirit. Magical operations are highly recommended.

Ancient alchemists tell us that the Philosopher’s Stone, the spiritual Magnum Opus, is created through the purification of Mercury by fire. The Moon is, alchemically, associated with silvery Mercury. Manfred M. Junius wrote in Spagyrics, “Mercury is occasionally called the Moon, the Lunar, or Diana,” which is transformed by the active Solar principle of “invisible fire, and also of love.” Because the Mercury will station direct station just before this New Moon, we get precisely that: a purification of Mercury and mercurial energy (the spirit that can be willfully shaped) by fire.

While we’ve been heavily defined by the reality checks of Mercury Rx and the Mars-Saturn conjunction of early April, Mercury’s stationing direct in Aries will bring the warmth needed to revitalize spent muscles. It is without question the harbinger of this lunar rebirth. We will learn new ways of moving that had previously been unavailable.

Remember that rebirth is a space of inexperience. While Aries is the sign of “I am,” don’t try to finish the sentence just yet. Allow yourself to remain porous and see how your new awareness can function more broadly in the world.

Change and surprises should be welcomed with open arms, through whatever doors they rush in. Discernment will follow shortly after, particularly when Saturn stations Retrograde on Tuesday, April 17, the same day that Saturn’s offspring, Chiron, ingresses into Aries after his 7-year transit through Pisces.

Monday and Tuesday morning will be particularly auspicious days for channeling celestial magic for manifestation. As the Moon moves into Taurus, the sky will be full of exalted planets, trines, textiles, and aspects among benefics. Opportunities for augmentation should abound, so select the seeds you wish to plant, call down these energies, and press your intentions into the warming earth, with all available optimism.

Chiron ingress into Aries | April 17 | 1:10am PST

Almost exactly fifty years ago, on April 1, 1968, Chiron left gentle Pisces for Aries, the sign that gives rise to the fiery warrior.

Three days later on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. This event triggered the violent riots of April 1968, which took place in 125 cities worldwide.

Student Protesters | 1968 | Tufts Journal

The riots become a centerpiece in Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign for presidency, who promised law and order as a reactionary measure in the face of the images of violence that conservative America now directly associated with the Civil Rights Movement. The legacy of these riots turned much of mainstream America vehemently against the inner city “urban crisis,” and this legacy remains alive in the taste of many Americans’ mouths today.

Much of the narrative behind the continued inner city urban crisis and the general socioeconomic reality in America remains well beyond mainstream America’s scope of vision, thanks to politicking and pernicious stories told by people in positions of power.

Chiron, the Wounded Healer, is a fascinating character. As someone who suffers the wound he knows how to heal, one of his roles is expanding beyond stories he’s heard or told himself about his capability to heal himself. When Chiron entered Aries in 1968, many eyes opened to the reality of the tensions in America, but many eyes turned toward toxic stories about how that tension had arisen, and the mainstream cultural shift was toward shunning the tension entirely, assuming it could not be healed.

At this moment in time, the 1968 Riots are experiencing a Chiron Return, which at best will invite the opportunity to revisit this legacy and begin a deeper healing of its wounds, worldwide. It is the opportunity to individually open our eyes, interact with one another with humility, as human to human. While Chiron’s time in Pisces signaled the need to establish contact with the Soul underlying all things, Chiron’s impending 7 years in Aries will push us into relationship with learning from the Soul of individuals. It signals the importance of refining our capacity to listen to and respect one another’s personal experiences, responding to one another in with greater respect for autonomy in the midst of interdependence.

Saturn station Retrograde | April 17 | 6:47pm PST

As mentioned above, Saturn, head faculty of Reality School, has been bringing a bounty of hard lessons through his conjunction with Mars. As he stations Retrograde in the evening of Tuesday, April 17, we may expect his lessons to lighten up as he asks us to review the meaning of what has already come to pass.

Patience and self-forgiveness are the most important virtues under this motion. Saturn Retrograde can feel like visiting the Confessional, assessing the honor and decency of your responses to life’s hardship. We are not saints, and we will always come across our slip-ups in integrity. Be gentle with yourself, and use the lessons to ground more fully into shaping reality as you want to see it.

The bright side of this Retrogradation is that we have so many planets agreeably positioned as Saturn begins to retrace his steps. Our freedom of movement to discover meaning is greater than it might otherwise be. Seize the clarity for developing wisdom, and allow the seeds you planted at the New Moon to continue germinating quietly in the dark earth.